Hughton plays down talk of a crisis but admits Albion have to start picking up points

Chris Hughton says Brighton have to quickly start picking up points again but quashed talk of a crisis.

The Seagulls were promoted from the Championship last season and collected 16 points from their opening 12 Premier League games.

They have picked up just one point from their past five matches and scored just one goal but still sit 13th in the table.

Hughton was asked at his pre-match press conference yesterday if their current form was a crisis and Albion's boss responded: "No because we are a newly promoted team. In some aspects we went through a good period (earlier in the season) which was better than people expected.

"We have to take that into consideration. We are amongst a group of teams that are also not in good form. We're the newer ones to this division, gaining experience as we go along but that doesn't mean it's something we're particularly happy with.

"We are very conscious of what the facts are and are very conscious we have to start picking up points and we've got to start scoring goals.

"We're now approaching two home games which are two very big games for us."

With the lack of goals in recent matches, Hughton was asked about arrivals in the January transfer window and said: "Any problem we have to address now. We'll continue to work as hard as we do on the training pitch and you can go through periods where you're not scoring for a period of time and one game or two games can make a difference.

"As regards January, nothing changes. We have a recruitment department that have worked hard right through the summer, are continuing to work hard right through to January and if there's an opportunuity and we think it's right, we certainly will do something."